Festival in full swing

The University of Adelaide is making a major contribution to the state's two biggest arts events in 2010, the Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival.

Throughout both festivals, the University is being used as a performance and rehearsal space for a number of key events.

Meanwhile, staff, students, graduates and volunteers of the University of Adelaide are all playing their role in ensuring that South Australia continues to live up to its reputation as the Festival State.

Both festivals officially conclude on Sunday 14 March.

Here are just some of the main events the University is involved in this month:

NORTHERN LIGHTS

From dusk until 1.00am26 February-5 AprilNorth Terrace, Adelaide

Hugely popular in 2008, once again the city's historic architectural icons on North Terrace will be painted with light and coloured with life.

Three of the University of Adelaide's buildings will again be featured in this display - Mitchell Building, Elder Hall and Bonython Hall - demonstrating their importance to the city and the cultural life of Adelaide.

THE SAPPHIRES

Various times (check program for details)25 February-14 MarchScott Theatre, North Terrace Campus, University of Adelaide (enter via Kintore Avenue)

Through the hot hits of Motown, The Sapphires traces the ups and downs of showbiz and family, following four wide-eyed girls on their journey of discovery from Melbourne to the Mekong amidst the love, sex and war of the swinging sixties.

Winner in 2005 of two Helpmann Awards for Best Play and Best New Australian Work.

WRITERS' WEEK

Starts 9.30am daily (check program for details)28 February-5 March

This year's Writers' Week is dedicated to author Thomas Shapcott, who was the inaugural Chair of the University of Adelaide's Creative Writing program. The week features a dedication to Shapcott and includes launches of two of his books.

Meanwhile, current University of Adelaide staff feature prominently in the program, with the Head of Creative Writing, Professor Brian Castro, taking part in a panel discussion on "Writers as Readers" and also in a "Meet the Author" event. Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Jill Jones will also take part in a panel discussion on poetry.

Graduates of the University's Creative Writing program continue to be strongly represented at Writers' Week on panels, through book launches and in award nominations, while two international authors, Emily Perkins (New Zealand) and Jim Crace (UK), will deliver seminars to University of Adelaide students during their stay in Adelaide.

MAHLER 8 - SYMPHONY OF A THOUSAND

13 MarchAdelaide Entertainment Centre, Port Road, Hindmarsh

The Director of the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium of Music, Associate Professor Carl Crossin, is the Chorus Director for this audacious finale to the 50th anniversary Adelaide Festival.

The event features the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, backed by a phalanx of massed choirs from across Australia, plus eight international soloists.

The University of Adelaide's Elder Hall has played an all-important role as a rehearsal space for the choirs involved in this major musical event.

WOMADelaide

5-8 March (check program for details)

Arguably Australia's best big music festival, each year WOMADelaide receives special attention from the University of Adelaide's community radio station, Radio Adelaide (101.5fm).

Radio Adelaide sends out special WOMADelaide broadcasts to community and indigenous radio listeners right round the country, and to online listeners anywhere in the world.

The live-to-air broadcast is the centrepiece, and this year Radio Adelaide has three live-to-air shows: 6.30pm-8.30pm on 6, 7 and 8 March.

In Adelaide to perform two concerts for the Adelaide Festival, members of the London Sinfonietta also gave masterclasses to advanced music performance students at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium of Music.

Flutist Michael Cox from the London Sinfonietta (also Principal Flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and St Martin-in-the-Fields) held a masterclass with flute students Melanie Walters, Anna Cooper, Helen Seppelt and Nicole Pearce.

Michael will also run a masterclass for Adelaide flute students in London during a trip to London and Paris in January 2011.